The Buckeye earns Honorable Mention status for the second consecutive season
Each season, the Associated Press voters select their top players in women’s basketball. Those votes create three teams and a list of honorable mentions. For the second season in a row, Ohio State women’s basketball forward Cotie McMahon earned Honorable Mention status.
An Honorable Mention is for anyone whose name was placed on a ballot, but did not receive enough votes to earn a spot on the First, Second or Third Team All-American squads.
This season, McMahon had a career year with 16.6 points per game and work that does not show up on a stat line. McMahon stepped into a larger leadership role with former point guard Jacy Sheldon’s move to the WNBA.
The Buckeyes replaced three starters with a freshman and two upperclassmen transfers, and still Ohio State earned a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament for the third season in a row. That is largely due to the work of McMahon.
Regardless of how the team around the junior played, McMahon brought intensity and consistency to the Scarlet and Gray. McMahon led the team with 32.1 minutes per game and scored less than 10 points only twice in conference play, with a third coming in a blowout win during the non-conference schedule.
In moments where Ohio State appeared to slip against teams like the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Iowa Hawkeyes during the regular season, McMahon was there to pick the team up and lead the Buckeyes in consecutive overtime victories.
After defeats, McMahon owned up to the team’s mistakes and was not afraid to share what was on her mind. The first loss of the season, to the Penn State Nittany Lions who ended the Big Ten schedule in last place, McMahon called out the team’s lack of grit in the away defeat, challenging her teammates to do better.
Ohio State responded with three consecutive wins against teams that made the NCAA Tournament.
McMahon also owned up to her own mistakes, apologizing for a gesture sent to the Maryland student section on the final day of the season when the forward fouled out of the game which the Buckeyes lost in overtime.
The offseason provided McMahon the opportunity to play with USA Basketball’s youth 3×3 team, a kind of basketball that requires speed, three-level shooting and one-on-one defense to succeed. McMahon won the 2024 FIBA 3×3 Nations League Americas and went undefeated to win the gold medal in the 2024 FIBA 3×3 U23 World Cup.
Head coach Kevin McGuff saw the fruits of that work through McMahon, who added midrange and deep shooting to her arsenal, making 1.1 three-point shots per game after averaging .4 in each of the last two seasons.
In program history, five other players earned Honorable Mention status, including Sheldon who received one for the 21-22 season before winning a spot on the Second Team for the 23-24 campaign.
McMahon is only the second Buckeye to receive two Honorable Mentions, alongside guard Tayler Hill in 2012 and 2013.